Benefits Gained from Involving the Students in the Learning-Teaching Process

The omnipresent lack of resources for funding for lab and teaching assistants, in our universities, calls for creative approaches to fill the need for such work. In this presentation, the authors describe how students at a top ranked IS program, compete for the privilege of enrolling in a special course, where the majority of their responsibilities involves proctoring labs, designing and grading class projects, staffing help desks and tutoring lower level students. The upperclassmen are thus involved in real-life learning-teaching activities as part of their coursework. The result is a win-win situation. The upper level students report a high level of understanding of technical material and how they are expected to function in the professional world. The lower level students have nearly unlimited access to the more experienced upper level students. The faculty is able to reach more students and stretch the limited availability of graduate assistants. Both students and faculty report increased learning and significant benefits from this approach. The presentation includes an actual how-to do it guide and actual results of the benefits of this process.